Real-Life Celebrity Breakup: Ryan Reynolds and Scarlett Johansson

Rare is the celebrity who can manage to keep a secret from the prying eyes of the paparazzi. Rarer is the celebrity who can literally conduct a relationship, get married, and then divorce without giving the press so much as a half dozen photographs. But that’s exactly the sort of low profile that megastars Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds maintained during their three years together.

How Did Scarlet Johansson and Ryan Reynolds Meet?

Even when journalists consulted the all-important W’s – the who, the what, the when and the where – they still couldn’t pinpoint the exact moment in time that Johansson and Reynolds met.

The closest date they could agree upon was one day in April 2007; this following Reynolds and Alanis Morrissette’s decision to end their engagement – an event that had occurred in February of the same year.

Put a Ring On It
Within a month, May 5 to be exact, E! News released an article confirming that the love birds were engaged though, again, no further details about the happy event were disclosed. In fact, no one knew who actually popped the question or even what the ring looked like.

Keeping with the couple’s favorite pastime – secret-keeping – their wedding was shrouded in mystery. The only known fact being it took place on Saturday, September 27, 2008, at a remote wilderness retreat situated in Canada, just outside of Vancouver – the groom’s hometown.

Fans of the newly minted Mr. and Mrs. only learned about the blessed event thanks to a confirmation from Reynolds’ representative that was initially posted to E! News online.

In an interview on the subject conducted by Late Show host David Letterman, Johansson offered up, “There were bears and whales and eagles…it was like Avatar.”

Problems In the Reynolds Marriage
The new union was plagued by rumors of discord and strife almost from the beginning and even Johansson admitted that being a much-in-demand actor married to the same was challenging.

“We have no time for dates. We work and then go home and – I, anyway – just stare at the wall for a few before I go to sleep…it’s difficult. You want to make sure you have time to invest in your family.”

For the early part of 2010, Johansson and Reynolds were separated, ostensibly because of their careers – she was in New York and appearing nightly in the Broadway play A View From the Bridge and he was in New Orleans starring in The Green Lantern.

By November of that year, reps for the couple denied rumors that the Reynolds’ marriage was in trouble following allegations from an unnamed source that the pair were currently in the midst of working through some trouble stemming from their incompatible work schedules.

Scarlett Johansson and Ryan Reynolds Call It Quits

One month later, the two called it quits. “After long and careful consideration on both our parts, we’ve decided to end our marriage. We entered…with love and it’s with love and kindness we leave it. While privacy isn’t expected, it’s certainly appreciated.”

Hindsight

Post-divorce, Johansson became reflective. In her May 2016 interview with Cosmopolitan magazine, she offered that, “The logistics of being with another actor are challenging.”

“There has to be a real understanding of how you share your time, especially when two people’s careers are going at the same rate. Or even if one person is more successful than the other, that also proves challenging.”

Three years later, she confessed to Vanity Fair that, “The first time I got married, I was 23 years old. I didn’t really have an understanding of marriage. Maybe I kind of romanticized it…”